Letter to the Church - 2 E’ passato circa un anno da quando ci siamo trovati a condividere da credenti le difficoltà su quelle tematiche eticamente sensibili che ci avevano sollecitato in relazione ad eventi successi nella nostra realtà italiana.
The letter to the Church in Florence has attracted a level of interest that has pleasantly surprised: hundreds were adhesions, we organized a meeting with the Stensen Alberto Melloni of the church in the modern world, which has been very involved both as public and actions as the Cardinal Antonelli decided to meet in a public meeting at the premises of the old S. Donnino real space.
At that meeting, we explained our reasons for the difficulties that have caused us to write this letter. The Cardinal pointed out that the distance between what we express and thought it was great but no we had to stop and invited us to a subsequent meeting in December on the theme of secularism in its intentions (to another without having previously explained) was to be a reflection on the laity and politics.
We note that in those two games there have been stresses interesting, useful from the perspective of exchange of views among believers who have different approaches on these issues, and we appreciated the availability of the Cardinal to discuss on these issues.
it is still necessary, that everyone, lay people and pastors make a joint effort to achieve a real dialogue between believers who have, in per la sua storia un pezzetto di verità da condividere con gli altri, evitando semplificazioni sbrigative o tentativi di normalizzazione. L’invito ad “ascoltare la chiesa” riguarda al contempo e reciprocamente laici e pastori, perché tutti componenti dell’unico popolo in cammino verso il Regno, e tutti partecipi dell’ufficio sacerdotale, profetico, regale .
In tale prospettiva vorremmo un supplemento di riflessione sulla condizione dei laici cristiani nella chiesa e sul loro impegno di responsabile autonomia nelle realtà temporali.
Riteniamo che ci sia un aspetto di merito e uno di metodo da affrontare to continue the dialogue in the Florentine church.
The debate on the issues that we have also indicated in our letter, which also has continued in recent months, is inevitably affected by the contingency policy, a debate that is necessary to participate along with a look that crosses the current, background to identify those nodes that are often lost or confused. We believe that these nodes mark today, in many respects, including the stretch and style of the presence and activity of the Catholic Church in contemporary society.
In particular, it seems that the relationship between the Gospel and human reason, including the ethical choices that arise from experience and reflection in the faith and always called "natural law" is one of these nodes. Without doubt, a relevant issue in the cultural debate, and certainly a whole lot of political implications, we can not deliver and delegate to insiders, but must become a subject of vital diffuse reflection and also shared in the ecclesial communities.
We think, in fact, that the way we live and think the relationship between faith and history in all its aspects, derives the same opportunity to communicate the message of the Gospel message of condemnation, but the host and listening, so that "truth is not conceived as the exclusive possession, as a conquest to defend and impose on others" (E. Smith), especially in this time of general confusion in which it is urgent to testify consistency choice in the past, the reasons for hope and rekindle reject the temptation of power, in even the church is always free. Only in this dimension in our opinion, it is possible for religious citizens to work for the convergence of cultures that ethics is the need and the prospects for coexistence and democracy in a multicultural society.
Sul piano del metodo ci pare che sia possibile un percorso ulteriore di crescita della consapevolezza etica dei membri delle nostre chiese e, al tempo stesso, della dinamica ecclesiale. Infatti accanto all’incontro pubblico potremmo costruire nelle parrocchie, e soprattutto tra le parrocchie, momenti ordinari di riflessione su queste tematiche. Si tratta di guadagnare la duplice consapevolezza che:
1) una riflessione su questi temi richiede anche un lavoro "feriale", di approfondimento, di confronto con la vita vissuta, che ha bisogno dello scambio faccia a faccia e di a continuity of effort;
2) the laity and parishes have the right / duty to "call" moments of reflection like this and not expect him to come down "from above".
can not be an alibi, for example, inertia and dismantling activities vicarial officers in place, we must rather ask the priests and our communities to overcome situations of isolation in which we close, giving up be promoters of common initiatives for discussion and reflection.
In this logic of dissemination of the ideas we will not, this small group of editors of the "letter" as such, the interlocutors or the sponsors of these initiatives, even if each of us can work in this direction in the areas where he does his life as a Church. However, we can offer to act as a place of resonance about the proposals, initiatives and emerging reality already in place, to facilitate the sharing of similar experiences, through our blog (www.letterachiesafiorentina.blogspot.com).
We would like a return from the parishes of views and facts on which, together, reflect.
January 2008
Mario Batistini, Fabrizio Biagi, Renzo Bonaiuti, Luca Brogioni, Lucia Brundi, Francesca Caderni, Mario Casini, Stefano Cecconi, Manoela Moschi, Carlo Corti, Fabio Corti, Alessandra Daly, Giampiero Donnini, Cristina Ermini, Ugo Faggi, Lorenza Giani, Donata Graziani, Stefano Guidantoni, Alessio Malpassi, Andrea Poggi, Francesco Poggi, Angela Protesti, Laura Ricciarelli, Anna Sbolci, Letizia Scheggi, Paola Ugolini, Alberto Zanobini
Donuts 
